19 injured in Anantnag grenade blast

          Srinagar: At least 19 civilians were injured in a grenade blast in Kashmir's Anantnag district on Wednesday. A few of the critically injured school children and women were admitted to a hospital in Srinagar. Eyewitnesses said that militants lobbed grenades on the security vehicles outside a hospital in Bejbehara, 45 kms from Srinagar, wounding the pedestrians. "The blast occurred at Bejbehara at the hospital entrance. And as people were trying to enter there was a blast in which 9-10 people were injured on the spot," said Nazir Ahmed Khan.

Six cops killed in Jharkhand blast (Go To Top)

          Rania (Jharkhand): At least six policemen and their civilian driver were killed in Jharkhand when their vehicle ran over landmines suspected to have been planted by leftist rebels. The incident took place late on Tuesday at Rania village near state capital Ranchi. A Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) team was returning from a regular patrol in the forested areas on the outskirts of the city when the blast took place. "We were returning from patrolling when this landmine blast occurred. Six people were killed on the spot and another policeman, who was injured, died after he was brought to the station," Laxman Chhetry, a survivor, said. Eye witnesses said around 100 armed Maoist rebels ambushed the patrol party. The naxals had taken away arms and ammunition of the policemen kept in other vehicles. Maoist communists are active in 12 of the 19 districts in the mineral-rich tribal state. The People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre are two of the many leftist groups that make up the Naxalite movement, which started in Naxalbari in West Bengal state in 1960s among groups which split from the main communist party. Nearly a dozen rebel groups operate in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, both neighbouring Jharkhand, and in Andhra Pradesh. At least 170 policemen have been killed by the rebels in Jharkhand since the state was carved out from Bihar in 2001.

Counterfeit notes worth millions seized in Punjab (Go To Top)

          Amritsar: Four members of a gang dealing with fake Indian currency were arrested in Punjab, police said on Wednesday. Fake currency worth one million rupees was seized during a police raid in Amritsar. RPS Bajwa, senior superitendent of police, Majitha, said the gang had been operating for years and printed the fake currency with the help of computers. "Till now they had supplied 2.5 million rupees in the market. One million rupees more, so it is 3.5 million in all. They used to print it with the help of computers and had scanners and got ink also. Ashish was master in it," he said. Shishpal, one of the accused, said that he was lured to the racket as he was under debt. "I was under debt and was finding it difficult to run my house. So in 2002 these people contacted me and then decided to print fake notes. But then I got lured and could not come out of it," he said. The police also seized a computer with a printer and scanner used to print the notes.

Jaya takes back 15,000 sacked employees (Go To Top)

          Chennai: Over 15,000 temporary employees in various state-run offices in Tamil Nadu were reinstated on "sympathetic grounds" on Wednesday, two days after they were sacked. These men and women, most junior level clerks, were employed last year after over 1.2 million permanent employees went on strike and were dismissed under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). While some immediately reverted to work after warning, only 999 of the striking employees had been taken back and the remaining posts were filled by the ad hoc workers. The state government however planning to prune its burgeoning employee-base terminated all its adhoc appointments leading to the massive hue and cry. Most have been umemployed for years and their consolidated pay of 4,000 rupees a month was essential to support their families. They had requested for a "sympathetic review" of their situation. The government employees had struck work last year demanding a rollback in a cut in pension benefits. They opposed a new rule promulgated by the state government which said that employees had to complete 33 years in service as against the earlier 30-year period in order to avail of full pension benefits.

Telgi in judicial custody (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: A local court on Wednesday remanded kingpin of a multi-million dollar fake revenue stamp scam to seven days' judicial custody. Abdul Karim Telgi, who has been in jail for over a year, has been in the custody of the CBI. He will now be taken to a court in Maharashtra where he will be tried under an extremely-stringent act for control of organised crime. "I had asked permission to be present during the interrogation by the federal agency, I was present many times during the interrogation. Early this year, the CBI was handed over all the 48 cases in the scam by the Supreme Court, after petitioners complained of interference by various state agencies and lack of fairplay and transparency. The cases were earlier being handled by Special Investigation Team (SIT) of different states. More than 100 people across several states, including policemen, politicians and government officials, have been arrested for fraud in connection with the forged paper that is used for such transactions as property and business contracts. The near decade-old scam involves paper used in legal documents, known as stamp paper. Police and prosecutors say although $660 million worth of the paper has been found across nine states, the real figure could be more than 10 times that.

Six children die after drinking poisonous tea in Patna (Go To Top)

         Patna: At least six children of a family died and three others fell sick on Wednesday after they consumed poisonous tea in Patna. The children were aged between 4-5 and had taken the drink during festivities for a marriage in the family. "There was a marriage function where these children drank tea and after that they started vomiting and fell ill. Six children have died and three others are being treated here," Bhupendra Narayan, the resident medical officer of Patna Medical College Hospital, said. Shocked relatives were clueless as to what had actually happened. "These children were playing after drinking tea but God knows what happened and they died," said Guhari Rai, a father who lost two of his sons. No case has been registered so far.

BJP resolution skips Hindutva issues (Go To Top)

          Mumbai: Skipping core Hindutva issues, the draft political resolution before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive on Wednesday focussed its attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi accusing her of "belittling" the office of Prime Minister by the way Manmohan Singh was appointed to the top post. Meeting for an introspective session after the shock defeat in the Lok Sabha election, the leaders took up for discussion the draft resolution which expressed confidence in the leadership of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani. It noted that the party has grown under the statesmanship of Vajpayee. Addressing the gathering, Advani asked partymen to "take along" the Sangh Parivar to widen the party base.